Page 184 of Lovely Venom

“Nobody had really prepared me for what to expect, but over time, Damian put me at ease.

“The contract included a one-year courtship, and he’d meet with me once a week. He seemed charming, and he said and did all the right things, so I thought I was one of the lucky ones.” She lets out a bitter laugh. “But I was just a foolish girl who didn’t know a wolf from a sheep.”

“One night, he took me to a dinner party at an associate’s house. He was a wealthy political donor, and Damian was the liaison between him and the Greeks.

“When we walked in, I noticed my friend was there too, but I didn’t even get a chance to talk to her. A man greeted us at the door and told us to follow him upstairs. I thought it was weird they wanted me to go because they didn’t usually involve women in business. But Damian grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along with him.

“Once we were upstairs, the man led us to a bedroom, and the only other person there was the host. Damian told the man he’d brought him what he wanted, and the man looked at me.

“He explained that Damian owed him a lot of money—more than he could pay. That was when Damian told me to do whatever the man wanted, and it would go easier.

“I remember staring at him, certain I was misunderstanding the situation, because he would never do that to me. But then the man told Damian to take a seat and enjoy the show, and he sat down without an argument. He seemed so checked out, I wasn’t sure he even cared.

“In any case, he certainly didn’t say anything when the man threw me on the bed and started mauling me.”

My body goes rigid beneath her, and I’m not entirely sure I can stomach what she’s about to tell me. But she’s too deep in the memory to turn back now.

“I started to cry,” she goes on. “And I just kept looking at Damian, thinking he would stop it at some point. But when I called out for him, the man informed me that Damian was the one who made this arrangement. He offered up my virginity for payment, and the man intended to get his money’s worth. He said he only fucked virgins, because he wanted them to remember him forever.”

Silent rage festers inside me, and I’m already imagining all the ways I’m going to torture this motherfucker when I find out who he is.

“He was brutal,” Chantel rasps. “When he finished the first time, he told Damian to leave, and he’d send me out when he was done with me…if I was still breathing.”

I close my eyes and drag in a rough breath as I hold her tighter.

“It went on for hours,” she chokes out. “I left the room in a ripped dress, never imagining things could get any worse. But as I stumbled down the hall looking for Damian, I found him with his dick in my best friend’s mouth. When he looked up at me, he smiled like I was getting what I deserved.”

“I told him we were done, and that was the first time he hit me. He said if I ever breathed a word about what happened, he’d kill me. After that, I just became numb.

“He’d given me a preview of what my life would be like, but there was nothing I could do. Every week, he’d still take me out, but things only got worse. He’d pick fights and call me names, all the while, he was still fucking my friend. He wanted to punish me for what happened even though he was the one responsible.”

“I lived in a constant state of exhaustion and fear, and I was slowly dying inside. By the time the wedding approached, I couldn’t hide it anymore. The night before, everyone had gathered at my father’s house to celebrate, and I was miserable.

“Damian pulled me down the corridor and told me I was embarrassing him. When I said I didn’t care, it set something off in him. He hit me, and then he just kept going. At some point, I ended up on the floor, and he was strangling me.”

“When I saw Andreas approach him from behind, I thought I was imagining it. He punched Damian in the back of the head, and then he snuck me outside and into a car.

“Ares came out to meet us, and he had his men escort me back to Seattle while he stayed at the party to avoid suspicion. From what he told me, nobody even noticed I was gone until the morning of the wedding. He sat there along with the other guests, knowing I wouldn’t show, and even offered up some of his men to help search the city. When he returned to Seattle, he told me my father believed I’d been taken by a rival and by the end of the week, he’d receive news of my death.

“It was a clean break,” she says. “I was free. Ares had retrieved my mother’s music box for me, so I had some money, and he set me up with a new identity. I found a job and a place to rent, and I thought I could finally be at peace. But…I wasn’t.”

“The rituals?” I murmur.

She nods. “The irony was that I was safe, but I’d lived in a state of hypervigilance for so long, my brain couldn’t turn it off. The fear never went away, and I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. But Mariella was there, and she was kind to me. She kept checking in, and over time she became the one person I could trust.”

She pauses for a moment, fidgeting with the hem of the blanket. “I didn’t come into your lives intentionally. It just happened, and for the first time in my life, it felt like I had a family of sorts. I didn’t like lying to all of you about who I really was, but I knew if any of you ever found out, nothing would ever be the same.”

“I know I should have told you.” Her voice wavers. “But I was terrified of losing you. I love you so much, Cristian⁠—”

That’s all she manages to get out before she breaks down into tears again, and I talk her through it until she’s in the headspace to hear me.

“You aren’t going to lose me, baby.” I tilt her gaze to mine. “I’m right here, and I have been all along. I’ve been in love with you for years, and nothing is going to change that.”

She blinks up at me through glassy eyes. “You have?”

“You have no fucking idea.” I stare into an endless abyss of green.

She lets out a shuddering breath, and my gaze roams over her face.